


Blossoms

by Kien Rugastelo (cein)



Series: Fairy Tale AU [3]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Loss of Parent(s), Magic, Names, Plague
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25928809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cein/pseuds/Kien%20Rugastelo
Summary: A family comes from Macau and Sakura learns many, many secrets.
Relationships: Sakura | Tsubasa & Syaoran | Li Tsubasa
Series: Fairy Tale AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1880530





	Blossoms

**Author's Note:**

> This one was a doozy working out the names I wanted to use. For the most part, I was able to work with the literal translations/transliterations of the names (or in Yukito's case, a name of another part of him present in CardCaptor Sakura, but not TRC) until I got to Touya. His name literally means Peach Arrow, and I couldn't find any direct names I liked, so I went with a translation of Almond, which are in the same family as Peaches.
> 
> In this time period, Macau is occupied by Portugal, and the Lis are of mixed ancestry.

Sakura’s family was a family of dutiful secrets, though she had heard that it hadn’t always been that way. They were medicine-makers by trade, and knew how to work with the land and the plants that grew there. They knew which plants could cure and which plants could kill and which plants could be brought either direction with careful manipulation. They knew because the plants had taught them their secrets long ago, and now it was their secret, too.

The public did not need to know much of their methods, only that their cures worked reliably. People were superstitious at best, and prone to violence in the face of that which they did not understand more often than not, especially in groups. The magic of the Rowntrees was something people often did not understand, and the knowledge was dangerous when faced with the reality of the power of the Church.

Names were carefully guarded secrets as well, and to guard from the possibility of being sussed out, they made a habit of picking true names from other lands. That was how Sakura was born Sakura, but given the public name of Silíní. They had other names as well — names for use around family (when Sakura became Blossom), names to be used in business (which Sakura would inherit from her mother when it was time to learn it), names only meant for those they shared an intimacy with (Sakura longed for the day she would receive a dream about this yet unknown name of hers — a name she would share with her special person and no other so they may guard each other as furiously as they would be protected in kind). The smaller the reach of each name, the less of a hold they had in other affairs. Small names brought safety and security — so that even if they had a name taken away or wielded against them, it could be discarded and replaced with little harm done, as long as it was not the true name.

Small names were each small secrets.

Sakura was very good with secrets.

Her family was also keenly aware of She who Compulses’ realm, and had a better idea of its reality than most and so stayed far, far away from what laid at the center of it. They would go to the borders of that realm, where herbs were more potent, or sometimes just within with utmost care to seek out that which did not thrive anywhere else. When they had to venture inside, they made sure to leave gifts, so as to not cause offense at their trespass. It would not do to get on whatever it was that governed that realm’s bad side. Rather, they preferred to be on distant but friendly terms. This, too, was a secret, one Sakura learned when she was 8 and old enough to help gather flowers just within that world’s borders.

Perhaps it was their relatively frequent contact with that world that sustained their magical lineage. Perhaps, it was just a natural thing their family had developed over time and the otherworld had nothing to do with it at all. Perhaps, there was a deeper secret beneath it, one that ought not be guessed at, lest it be uncovered. That secret was so deep as to have been forgotten with time. Sakura did not need to mind that one.

Whatever it was that made her family so powerful, Sakura and her brother, known to her as Almón, were the strongest yet. Her brother could see the truth of lies, the shapes behind false forms. He knew when a bird was not a bird, when the breeze was not really the breeze, and he could communicate with whatever they truly were. This gave him many many secrets, and Sakura wondered what holding all of them must have been like. Sakura was a communicator as well, but with things. Water spoke to her often, and the flowers, sometimes the birds that were really birds and the breeze that was really the breeze. Dreams spoke sometimes as well, not so much when she was younger, but increasingly as she became more in tune with herself and her abilities. There were no other beings hiding behind the things that spoke to Sakura, Almón had checked, and it seemed as if her powers were made to compliment her brother’s. He could speak with that which was false; she could speak with that which was true.

Her secrets were much smaller, not nearly so vast as her brother’s, but they were preciously guarded all the same. The things that spoke to her were almost always pleasant, and frequently did not have much to say. Her brother was often not so fortunate. He did not tell her this, but she knew it all the same.

Sakura was very good with secrets.

One night when she was 10, she dreamt the moon spoke to her, warning her of a great change just beyond the horizon, swiftly approaching.

One day, a family came from Macau. They were medicine-makers, like her own family. They had two children, like her own family, close in age to her brother and herself. They seemed a little guarded, like her own family. They looked foreign and sounded foreign and had foreign names that did not speak to her like Yue and Xiao Lan.

Sakura understood much about people whose names did not speak to her.

Their medicine was strange to her, but no less potent than her own family’s. It worked in different ways, and sometimes her family had better medicine for one thing and the Lis had better medicine for another, but none of it was false, like some of the other medicine-makers she had known. This was something she was not supposed to know, but had come to her anyway when a regular customer had brought a sample by. She had just wanted to know if it was effective, if these new medicines were something that could be trusted or if she should warn the rest of the town against these newcomers. The medicine spoke to Sakura like an old friend, and she was able to assure that yes, it was safe and would work well and could perhaps be complimented by a product her family had available as well.

What she did not say was that it was safe and would work just as well as her family’s because it had been made with magic just as strong as her family’s. She did not tell her family. She thought her brother knew, anyway.

Still, the next time she saw Xiao Lan in public, she got the distinct impression that he did not trust her. That was probably wise, but it made her a little sad. She did not know any other families with magic. She wanted to know. Her brother had told her once that her curiosity would one day be her failing, that some things were meant to be unknown. If that was true, then why was it that between the two of them, the whole world could be revealed? She did not believe the world to be so cruel as to curse them in such a way if it really was a curse and not a blessing. Sakura only knew the world as that which did not hide its true nature, and so the thought of a naturally cruel world seemed wrong, so she did not believe in such a thing.

She did not consider that the truth of the world was that it was an indifferent force that either was not sentient at all, or whose knowledge spanned so far beyond her understanding that it did not bother with things so small as human ethical conflicts. She did not consider this, and so, she acted.

* * *

She was still 10 the night the moon told Sakura to go to the pond at the end of the stream which served as the border between her world and the otherworld, so she snuck out and went. The moon was full, and the sky full of stars and not clouds, and so the world was still bright in the darkness. She did not need a lantern to find her way when she had gone there so many times before.

She wondered what the moon intended for her to find, but as she neared the final bend, she could hear voices, low but not whispering. It wasn’t a something the moon wanted her to see, but a someone. Quickly, she picked a bunch of rosemary, just in case, and she rounded that bend to find two of the Lis there: the father and the youngest son. They had brought out many tools and implements, and Sakura, curious, drew nearer.

The father, who had a face that was much like her own father’s in many ways, finished whatever he was saying, then turned her way slowly as if he did not wish to startle her. Xiao Lan tracked his gaze, spotted Sakura, and immediately bristled. “Hello,” the father began, pleasantly, “Daughter of the Rowntrees.”

Sakura stayed where she was a safe distance away, though she did not feel threatened. “Hello,” she responded. “I did not mean to intrude, Mr Li.”

“You may call me Clow, and I believe you are familiar with my son, Xiao Lan,” he corrected, beckoning her closer. “How may I call you?”

“I’m Silíní,” Sakura replied, approaching languidly. She did not have her business name yet.

“Ms Silíní,” Clow acknowledged warmly. “Have you been picking herbs for your family’s practice?”

“I have,” Sakura said as she sat by the pond, still politely out of Clow’s reach but where she could see their tools much more clearly than she could before. She felt safe, even as Xiao Lan continued glaring at her from behind his father. “Are you making medicine?”

“I am teaching my son why it is best to make tinctures under the light of the full moon,” Clow provided, and Sakura gained another secret. “Would you like to join us?”

“ _Fuqin_!” Xiao Lan exclaimed behind him, scandalized.

Clow turned and murmured something to Xiao Lan that was not in a language Sakura understood, but sounded comforting and patient, and so much like her own father that the sound of the words practically spoke their truth to her: It’s alright. With the same easy grace, he faced Sakura again, holding out one hand. “Would you like to learn our medicine, Ms Silíní?”

Sakura placed her hand in his and allowed Clow to guide her closer, and that night she learned many secrets.

* * *

The full moon continued to call to Sakura, and the Lis continued to be discoverable beneath it. Clow spoke truth and truth spoke through Clow freely, and Sakura learned much. Where the Rowntrees traditionally drew their power from plants, the Lis drew from the moon, and Sakura thought it was possibly the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Sometimes, she was able to give back, and teach them some small aspect of how her family made their medicine, and it felt good to be able to tell. Combining their knowledge could only make their medicine stronger and help more people, and Sakura was always glad to help.

Xiao Lan tolerated her presence. That was fine — he was learning, too. They could learn together, and grow together, and someday be friends, like she and Clow were already friends.

She did not tell her family these things. They were not her secrets to give. Almón found out, anyway.

* * *

Sakura was 11 when a hand grasped her just above the elbow and yanked her backwards just as she was ready to round the final bend to the pond on what had become a regular trek for her. She didn’t hit the body behind her, but instead pivoted, ready to ask the willow tree for assistance, only to find that the person who had stopped her was Almón. This wasn’t a relief. “Brother!”

Almón kept the grip on her arm firm, and opened his mouth to scold her, but a rustling behind him startled him and it was his turn to whip around. The one who stepped out from behind the tree was Yue, smiling and keeping his hands behind his back. Almón eyed him mistrustfully. “Sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” Yue began placatingly. Sometimes Yue reminded Sakura of her father as well, but right now, Yue’s truth did not speak clearly to her.

“Why were you following us?” Almón demanded, keeping himself between Yue and Sakura.

“I saw someone following Ms Silíní and wanted to make sure she made it to her destination safely,” Yue explained, and something in his words gave Sakura the impression that he was laughing at her brother, as if something Almón was doing was funny to him, but not in an unkind way. Yue crouched down just a bit so that he was eye level with Sakura. “Are you safe, Ms Silíní?”

That only made Almón’s frown deepen and Sakura looked between him and Yue worriedly. Their interaction was speaking to her brother, too, she was sure of it. She had never experienced something like this before. How could something or someone be both true and false at the same time? Still, Yue had asked her a question, and he was expecting an answer. Sakura made a decision. “Yes.”

She was safe — with her brother, with Clow, with Xiao Lan, with the elusive Yue. She was safe. Her words did not speak to Almón, but they held meaning for Yue somehow, because his smile only grew ever more sincere, and Yue’s entire being began to speak to Sakura again. “Go on, Father is waiting.”

Whatever was speaking to Almón must have stopped because his grip loosened enough for Sakura to free her arm and hurry around the bend. “Of course. Thank you, Mr Yue!” she called behind herself. Clow and Xiao Lan were waiting.

* * *

Whatever passed between Yue and Almón after she left, Sakura never did learn, but Almón grew less mistrustful of him, and called him Yuki when he thought no one else could hear. Something inside Sakura was glad, though she did not know why.

* * *

Sakura was 14 when the plague came. She had heard stories of when it had come before in different regions time and time again. She worried about the town. She worried about towns that are not hers. She worried about the travellers in between. She did not worry for her family. Her family had prepared for such occasions. They were ready. Between her family and the Lis, their medicine was strong enough, and they saved many people.

Sakura was 14 when the plague came and took her mother away.

* * *

Sakura mourned in a way she had never mourned in her life. This was not the first time she had seen death, but it had never been so close before — only townspeople who had grown old, or injured, or sometimes just too sick for any medicine to cure. Death had never come for someone so close to her, or so suddenly. She had not even known her mother was ill, and then she was gone. It was a cold comfort, that maybe it truly was that swift and that her mother had not suffered long as sometimes was the case.

It wasn’t fair and Sakura did not even get the chance to say good-bye. So she mourned and it was a wretched thing, but something else happened soon after.

Xiao Lan disappeared. No one knew where he had gone, not even his family, not even the plants or the animals or the breeze, and somehow that was worse — the not knowing. 

Her despair grew tenfold and Sakura could not bear to leave her room. She hardly ate, she hardly slept. Weeks wasted away like sand through her fingers and she hardly noticed. It was in a sleep that she had felt drawn into, like she did not have a choice in the matter though she fought it with everything in her being like death itself was coming for her now, that the full moon came again and spoke to her.

She awoke, and she knew where he was.

* * *

“What are you doing?” Almón asked Sakura as she packed a bag with haste. Provisions for two — that was all she needed.

“I know where he went,” she said in a rush, feeling almost possessed by the need to leave — to get to him then and now. “I’m going to go get him.”

Almón’s worry shown openly. “Get who?”

Sakura opened her mouth but no name came out. She could recall his face, clearly, but the name — it escaped her, like it was dancing just beyond her finger tips and she could not firmly grasp it. Four years, she had known him, and now she no longer had his name. It made her stomach grow cold with dread. “I have to go,” she insisted suddenly, nearly panicking now.

It was Yue who stepped forward and grasped Sakura by her shoulders, but not to stop her — only to bend down and look her right in the eye as he did all those years ago. He was taller then — no, Sakura had grown since then. “You can do this.”

Sakura took a breath, feeling out the truth of his words and letting them comfort her just enough. Just enough that her hands stopped shaking and her stomach ceased threatening to reject whatever it still contained. She clutched her bag close, and with a solemn nod, she left for the otherworld.

* * *

Sakura had expected a long and perilous journey. The core of the otherworld was supposed to be difficult to find, and she expected to struggle to reach it. Instead, she marched across the stream determined, and in the space of a blink, forest dissolved around her into an unfamiliar meadow with a small hut in the middle. A woman stepped out onto the porch, and Sakura knew she’d found the right place. Maybe her wish was just that powerful, maybe  _ she _ was just that powerful.

“You have come here with a wish,” the woman said, and Sakura’s senses identified her as a witch. This woman spoke to her, but not with words. Instead Sakura heard tingling like bells, and she did not understand.

“I am looking for my friend,” she chanced, trying to get a feel for the truth of the situation.

“Ah, the rude one,” the woman remarked, and yes, her friend could at times be quite rude. “He was hostile, so I have taken him.”

The price for rudeness seemed high here. Sakura kept that in mind. “I would like him back, please.”

“You own him?”

No, that wasn’t right, something inside Sakura screamed, and she shook her head No roughly. She needed to think. She needed to understand what this woman was really telling her. She couldn’t think over the sound of the bells. “I want him free.”

“Nothing in this world is free.”

“Released!” Sakura stepped forward, frustrated tears pricking at her eyes. “I wish for you to release my friend!”

The woman’s smile was slow. “There is a price.”

She paid it.

* * *

She awoke in the night by a pond that was familiar and yet not, bathed in the light of a moon that had been full one night ago. She did not feel any different, but the realization of that was hollow. At least the bells had stopped.

“Why did you do it?” That voice was familiar and she turned to it. There was her friend, sitting beside her, not looking at her but at the still waters of the pond. She wondered if he couldn’t bear to look at her.

She pulled herself to a seated position, mirroring him in all but expression. His face was neutral, as it often was when he was trying not to be angry; she smiled, but it was sad. “I couldn’t stand to lose anyone else.”

He grimaced. She was right, he was angry. “You just lost  _ everyone _ else.”

“No.” His words did not speak to her. “They’re safe. I cannot reach them, but they’re safe.” Her own words spoke to her as they left her lips. It was true. “And now, you’re safe, too.”

This was also true. Her friend sighed long, releasing his anger at her recklessness, and she felt endeared. “What do I call you now?” he asked, but as if he was prompting her. As if she should know what to do.

The witch had her true name, not the one he had for her.

Reusing a name she already had felt like it would be bad, but those names were a part of her. She could not stray too far from them. But they were precious, too. The witch did not take them, but she had to keep them safe, and so she took them back herself. She wanted to cry as she did it, wondering how her family would remember her now, but she refused to lose anything else. She wondered if her friend had done the same, if that was why she lost the name for him that she had. “Flower.”

He paused, sucking in a breath as if he was carving her name into his very being so it could never be taken away again. “Lion.”

Taking her names back was exhausting work, and so Flower rested her head on Lion’s shoulder and they stayed that way until the moon dipped down below the trees.

* * *

This world was not so terrible when they avoided the things that were false. They were both strong and well versed in the magic they had, and so they gave false things a wide berth and they were okay. 

There were many things in this world that were false.

* * *

The next full moon, Lion took her to a particular tree in the forest. “This is what I came here for.” Flower was confused, and she approached the tree cautiously, reaching out one hand to touch it. It spoke to her, somehow, but not like a truth. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but what this tree spoke was not the truth, and yet she could hear it clearly anyway, gently speaking to her in a voice she knew so well and before Flower knew it, her eyes were growing damp.

“I’m sorry,” Lion continued, tearing his eyes away, “This is all my name was worth.”

This tree wasn’t her mother. Flower knew that. Her mother was gone, and the dead were gone forever. Still, she beheld Lion in her gaze. Still, her vision grew blurry with unshed tears, and forgetting herself, she threw her arms around his neck with a sob. If she had been stronger, maybe Lion would never have left on this fool’s errand. If she had been stronger, maybe she could have rallied herself and saved them all such sorrow. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to beg his forgiveness until they both were only so much dust.

But that felt wrong, and she didn’t want to be ungrateful. “Thank you,” she managed, holding tighter.

Lion’s arms on her back were still, but strong.

* * *

Time marched on without them. They stayed near the tree because it was the only thing there that was theirs and they had to protect it, even if it was a lie. Human forms were tiring to maintain, but Lion could manage when the sun was not out to weaken him, and Flower took her form at night as well, because when she was petals, they could not speak.

When she was petals, she could talk to the tree fluently, and it was a very nice tree, so similar to her mother that at first it had made her sick. Now, Flower took comfort in even the ghost of familiarity.

Time had taken their family, eventually. All Flower had left were Lion and her tree. It was enough.

By night, they still practiced their medicine, if only to keep the knowledge fresh. With time, their knowledge grew, and their powers grew more versatile. Maybe they could have accomplished this in the human world, too, but they would have never had this much time to do so. Maybe being trapped here wasn’t so bad.

With Lion, it was not so bad.

* * *

One day, a man appears beneath her tree and he is the truest thing Flower has seen in decades. She has to know more, and so she manifests as human in the daylight for the first time since Lion grew unable to. Her brother had told her once that her curiosity would one day be her failing, but it saves them both in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Good thing Sakura's family had essentially built up credit with Yuuko, or that might not have turned out so well for Sakura. Her good luck strikes again!
> 
> (Also, sorry if the rapid fic cycling is low quality. I'm in a full-blown manic cycle and I feel like I've been a yo-yo person all quarantine).
> 
> [More notes](https://deforrest-bergan.tumblr.com/post/626581594300465152/blossoms-kien-rugastelo-cein-tsubasa)


End file.
